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‘He failed to deliver on his first two starts this year but last autumn he looked like he could become a high-class stayer.’

‘Melbourne is very much the plan for Big Orange. We know he stays the trip now, which we always thought he would, he has got the boot to win a Group Two over a mile and a half and he goes on any ground. I would say he ticks a lot of the boxes.

‘The good horses are hard to find and this is a real thrill for us to have such a good horse again.’

Big Orange fended off 9-2 favourite Quest For More and Trip To Paris at Goodwood

Roger Charlton-trained Quest For More could run next in the Ebor Handicap at York next month while Ed Dunlop’s Trip To Paris, who had to carry a 3lb penalty, is also probably Melbourne Cup bound.

Dunlop said: ‘I think the track and the penalty probably beat us. He hit the front and just wandered about a bit which can happen at Goodwood.’

Shalaa was immediately handed quotes for next year’s 2,000 Guineas after running out the most impressive winner of the day to both defy a 3lb penalty and still beat Tasleet two and three-quarter lengths in the Richmond Stakes under Frankie Dettori.

But winning trainer John Gosden regards the colt, who had won the July Stakes at Newmarket earlier in the month, as a sprinter and not a miler. He envisages Royal Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup as the more likely early 2016 target.

Gosden said: ‘He has so much speed he has burned them all off before Frankie has to move. He's a very fast two-year-old.

‘It's a great sight to see him cruising while other jockeys in behind are working away, but he's learned to relax, and when he won his maiden he didn't relax.

‘Thank goodness we resisted the temptation to go to Royal Ascot for the Coventry Stakes because he wasn't ready for that mentally, and yet he is now.

‘He reminds me of Oasis Dream - he's that type of horse. The Prix Morny and Middle Park would be obvious targets, but we won't take him up to seven furlongs, because he's fast.’

It would have been a dread of champion jockey Richard Hughes, who retires after racing here on Saturday, to go through his final Glorious Goodwood winless.

But that fear is over after he won the opening Land Rover Stakes with Gibeon, trained by brother-in-law Richard Hannon.

The fact he picked up a two-day careless riding ban will be irrelevant.

Hughes, along with all the jockeys at Goodwood wore black arm bands as a mark of respect for commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan, who died on Wednesday.

There was also a minute’s round of applause from spectators before the first race as some of O’Sullevan’s most memorable commentaries were played on big screens around the track